10 1/2 days living with a First Edition

[SnBGC]

Overall, very pleased with the Mach-E. Most all my expectations have been met or exceeded. Some disappointments as well but they fall into the minor or nit-picky category. Even so....here are some of my observations. To be fair....I've been keeping a list from day one and it was MUCH longer than what you will see here but there are quite a few items that got scratched off the list as I learned more about the car. There were items that I couldn't find or didn't work but I eventually figured out there was a setting that I could enable/disable or a button here or there etc.

Happy Face Items:

1. Adaptive Cruise and Lane Keeping Assist is awesome! Really well designed and works great in my area.
2. Auto Headlight High Beams. Didn't even know this car had that feature until I saw it working.
3. The turning radius is very good.....much better than my Focus Electric or C-Max Energi. This is no small feat considering there is a motor driving the front wheels.
4. Zero torque steer. Ford has done an excellent job with the front/rear drive blending.
5. L Mode is awesome! It is SOOOOO much better than in my FFE or Energi. Since I rarely use 1PD, I find the more aggressive regen on demand very useful under some scenarios. (with 1PD enabled then "L" is disabled)
6. 3 Auto settings for climate is very nice. Haven't had that before in any of my vehicles....
7. 360 camera view is also very helpful. Never had that before either.....
8. Front trunk is handy......especially when I need to transport something like a small roasted chicken from Sam's Club and don't want it to smell up the cabin.
9. I find the range estimate has become increasingly accurate. Was crazy low at first but after a week or so then it started to be much more accurate. Not that it matters for day to day driving. I have driven about 50 miles already today and still have almost 85% and over 230 miles of range. That is crazy. With my FFE.....I would be around 50% battery and need to charge if I wanted to run some more errands later.

General Observations:

1. The front door glass will need to be tinted. I can tell it's going to be brutal when summer comes so I'll have to get that done soon. I was hoping the special coating that Ford says is on those windows would avoid the need for tint but no such luck. Not here in Arizona at least.
2. So far.......the panoramic roof might be okay. I am not experiencing any issues with radiant heat from the sun. But it's only March. Let's revisit this one in August.....?
3. Washing this car is much more labor intensive than I expected. I know it is a larger car but that isn't really the reason. The issue is there are so many places for water to gather that I have to spend a LOT more time with compressed air to clean out all those cracks and crevices.
4. I can't keep the First Edition door sill nameplate clean because my foot keep banging into it when I exit the car.
5. The Mach E 4 X emblem is falling off already. That lower rule line grabs on the wash towel and gets pulled off quite easily.

Stuff I miss from my previous EV (2017 Focus Electric):

1. No physical switch for Max A/C. I have to wait for the SYNC to completely boot up so I can use that feature. it was 86 degrees today and it gets pretty darn hot inside the car while parked (just like any other car out here in AZ) and first thing we do is turn on Max A/C and it will cool down an EV in about 90 seconds or so. Now I have to wait for the screen to start up and sweat it out.....
2. Which brings me to the next items.....No remote start on the key fob. I see remote start on the app but it takes quite a while for the app to stabilize so I can use it.
3. My phone staying paired with the car. In my FFE, it automatically pairs with the car when I get in. On the Mach E it sometimes pairs, sometimes doesn't and even when it does.....it drops the phone often. I have to constantly reach over to the top of the SYNC screen to choose "CONNECT" or "CLOSE" when the banner message comes up saying that my phone has been dropped. It is very annoying and I miss having a car where that just worked all the time.
4. I like hearing the turn signals. The turn signals in the Mach-E are very quiet and I sometimes forget that I have them turned on. Maybe there is a setting for that volume?
5. I miss the steering wheel paddle for the voice activation feature. I used to use it all the time in my FFE but I find I use voice commands less often in the MME because that switch isn't as convenient to operate.
6. I miss having the ability to show a sticky view in the instrument cluster. I had it set to show the radio station, artist and song title there so no matter what I had on the SYNC screen it would always be there in the instrument display. That is gone now.
7. I miss having a graphic to show me how much energy the climate control is using. I used that to signal me when the PTC heater was activated and I could quickly disable that if necessary. I find myself checking the climate control screen to make sure that E-Heat isn't enabled unless I want it to be. So, it would be nice if that was a sticky view of some sort.

All in all.....the positives far outweigh the nit-picky items so still very happy.
The range is an unexpected surprise. Almost 300 miles on a full charge is more than Ford advertised for an AWD model so I definitely can't complain at all.

 

[zhackwyatt]

1. Front trunk is handy......especially when I need to transport something like a small roasted chicken from Sam's Club and don't want it to smell up the cabin.

Chicken supposed to smell good. At least I always enjoy the smell of the Costco chickens when warm.

1. I miss the steering wheel paddle for the voice activation feature. I used to use it all the time in my FFE but I find I use voice commands less often in the MME because that switch isn't as convenient to operate.

What about saying Hey Ford?

 

[SnBGC]

What about saying Hey Ford?

What is that?

 

[ajmartineau]

Can you easily roll down all the windows on the app before you walk up to it? That's what I do in the summer in Seattle. ( 3 weeks in August)

 

[zhackwyatt]

What is that?

It has voice activation, like an Alexa. I don't know if it's on by default, or you have to turn it on.

 

[mattbostonmache]

Thanks for writing this up! What do the three auto climate settings do?

 

[SnBGC]

Can you easily roll down all the windows on the app before you walk up to it? That's what I do in the summer in Seattle. ( 3 weeks in August)

Yes. Looks like it.
Maybe I can open the app, remote start and then roll down the windows. Maybe SYNC will be running when I get there? I'll give that a try....

Thanks! ?

 

[zhackwyatt]

Thanks for writing this up! What do the three auto climate settings do?

From the owner's manual, the three settings:

 

[SnBGC]

Thanks for writing this up! What do the three auto climate settings do?

As best as I can tell......it is like a slow, medium or high fan speed without actually having to mess with fan speed. I use Auto (one light) for my morning commute since it is cooler outside and I really don't need that much conditioning (and the car is pre-conditioned already). In the middle of the day I use Auto (3 lights) because the sun shines through the door glass and beats on me while I am sitting in traffic. On the way home....I am driving away from the setting sun so I use Auto (2 lights) and that works nice.

It is a pretty cool feature.

 

[zhackwyatt]

Yes. Looks like it.
Maybe I can open the app, remote start and then roll down the windows. Maybe SYNC will be running when I get there? I'll give that a try....

Thanks! ?

Global opening too, with the fob:

 

[SnBGC]

It has voice activation, like an Alexa. I don't know if it's on by default, or you have to turn it on.

Oh okay. I don't have Alexa or Google Assistant. My wife has Alexa at home but I've never used it. ?

 

[zhackwyatt]

Oh okay. I don't have Alexa or Google Assistant. My wife has Alexa at home but I've never used it. ?

Because I have the manual open for the other stuff, lol.

 

[SnBGC]

Global opening too, with the fob:

Thanks.
Interesting that feature is on the key fob but remote start isn't. If given a choice....I would have chosen the remote start over the "open up shop" setting.

 

[zhackwyatt]

Thanks.
Interesting that feature is on the key fob but remote start isn't. If given a choice....I would have chosen the remote start over the "open up shop" setting.

It's in a lot of Ford's that don't have remote start at all. Should be in your C-Max. Not sure about Focus, but probably.

 

[SnBGC]

Because I have the manual open for the other stuff, lol.

Okay. I will give it a try. Thanks. Never knew such a thing existed in this car.
So, I come up with some word that I never use in normal conversation and it can work the same as that voice button on the steering wheel?